National Identity in the Americas

Intermediate Seminar

Nationalism and the Nation

Dr. Jonathan Ablard

jablard@ithaca.edu

607-274-3558

Office Hours: T 11-noon; Th. 4-5pm, and by appointment

“Getting its history wrong is part of being a nation”

                                    --Ernest Renan

Assigned Books

Ø      Will Ferguson, Why I Hate Canadians

Ø      Jeffrey Pilcher, Que Vivan los Tamales

Ø      Isabel Allende, My Invented Country

Ø      Roman de la Campa, Cuba on my Mind

Course Description and Learning Outcomes

 The goal of the course is to introduce students to a series of questions concerning an area of social and political organization that is often taken as a “natural” phenomenon of human society. Two basic lines of inquiry will guide the course. The first is simply, what is the nation? To grapple with this question, we will read a wide array of essays by both “practitioners” (by which I mean politicians who have employed notions of the nation) and theoreticians and scholars of the nation. Second, we will seek to understand some of the different expressions of national identity that have emerged in the Americas. To that end, we will consider how a wide variety of factors can help to shape national identity and nationalism. This include religion, markets, modes of production, literature, cuisine and cook books, railroads, roads, and telegraphs, films, maps, gender roles, sports, music, medicine, political conflict, exile and repatriation, foreign perceptions, military service, elections, television, public schools (the list is truly endless).

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Because we meet only once a week, our class time will be divided. The first part of class will focus on discussion of the readings assigned for that session. The second half of class, typically, will involve activities such as viewing a film, hearing from a class visitor, etc.

Grading and Assignments

 Weekly Responses      1-2 pages double spaced. Reflect on the day’s readings by raising questions, drawing connections to earlier readings, and generally demonstrating that you have engaged with the material in a meaningful way. (20%)

Take Home Essay        Take home essay based on the readings from the course. It will be due sometime before Thanksgiving break. In the essay, which will be 3 pages, you must demonstrate a mastery of the course materials.  (20%)

Paper Proposal             Students will explain their project, their preliminary hypothesis, their sources, and other relevant information that will help me to assess the project’s feasibility. Prior to the due date, I will distribute a handout with explicit instructions. (10%)

Research Paper            Students will write a 10-15 page original essay on a topic of your choosing that addresses some aspect of nationalism and/or national identity. You will receive no credit for the paper if you have not handed in a research proposal. Early in the semester, the instructor will provide a more detailed description of what is expected from you in the paper. (30%)

Participation                 Students will come to class prepared to discuss the assigned material. Repeated absences and/or failure to keep up with the reading, as demonstrated by classroom performance, will count against the participation portion of the grade. The in-class research presentation and leading class discussion will count for part this grade. Students who miss more than 5 classes will be dropped from the roll. (10%)

Presentation                Near the end of the semester, each student will give a 10-15

minute presentation of their research. Presentations will be judged on level of preparation, ability to answer questions, and quality of the research. These presentations are not supposed to represent the FINAL project. Rather, it is expected that presenters will take the feedback of their colleagues and me in order to produce a better final paper. (10%)

Class Schedule

September 2     : Introductions

                        Triumph of the Will & Why We Fight & Funny Dirty Little War  

September 9: Early Writings on the Nation

                   Richard Hakylut’s “Dedications” from Voyages and Discoveries (1589)

                         Ernest Renan, “What is the Nation?”

                        Selections from Hobsbawm and Benedict Anderson,

                        Ken Burns, “The Civil War” (Part IX)

September 16:  National Identity in the United States

                        Eric Foner “Ken Burns’ The Civil War”

                        Eric Foner, “What is an American?”

                        Abrazo Partido (2006)

September 23:  Argentina

            Guest: Pablo Cohen, Music, Ithaca College

Domingo Sarmiento, Facundo, or Civilization and Barbarism (1845)

James Bryce, “Argentina,” in South America: Observations and Impressions (1918)

Tulio Halperin Donghi, “Argentines Ponder the Burden of the Past,” in Colonial Legacies (Routledge) NOTE: please access via Google books. 

            Argentine Soccer

Recommended: Jean H. Delaney, “Imagining El Ser Argentino: Cultural Nationalism and Romantic Concepts of  Nationhood In Early Twentieth-Century Argentina” JLAS

                        Strawberries and Chocolate (Cuba)

September 30:  Cuba

                        Fernando Ortiz, Cuban Counterpoint

                        José Martí

                        Selection from Louis Pérez, On Becoming Cuban

                        Film from Cuba

October 7:

             Roman de la Campa, Cuba on my Mind

Guest: Gladys Varona-Lacey, Ithaca College, Modern Languages

October 14:  Foreign Visitors to the USA

Selections from Charles Dickens’ American Notes (1842) & Domingo F. Sarmiento’s, Travels in the United States in 1847 (Handouts)

Frederick Jackson Turner’s Frontier Thesis (Chapter One) http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/TURNER/

Episodes of SCTV

October 21:  Ferguson, Why I Hate Canadians

October 29:  Mexico

            Jeffrey Pilcher, Que vivan los tamales!

             *         PAPER PROPOSAL DUE

            Machuca (Chile)

November 4:   

            Bye Bye Brazil

November 11:  Chile

       Isabel Allende, My Invented Country

       Machuca

November 18

Presentations

November 25

Thanksgiving Break

December 2

Presentations

December 9

Dinner out and Papers Handed In